May2013

May 2: The CWB is describing the current front as the first plum rain front of the season and is predicting wet weather for the next week at least. This morning was cool and wet with a morning temperature of 19.

May 4?:Overcast sky all day with weird cloud formation - almost mamatus in style, but not as pronounced. (possibly an omen for the downpour that followed next night)

May 5-6: The sky did look threatening all day and you could see rain out to sea, but still wasn't expecting the downpour that followed. 250mm+ in the guage overnight which makes it one of the biggest rain events of the year. CWB had it at 30% POP when the rain started, though at least they did correct that to 80% half way through the deluge - though why not go to 100 if it's already pouring? Also first appearance of flying ants, which is about a week later than last year.

May 8: mass hatching of small moths.

May 9: no repeat performance of the deluge, but has rained every day since then, or rather every night, as seems to be the pattern. Also confined to the east coast with the west and even north remaining dry. largish front coming through on sat (may 11).

May 10: Rained heavily here late last night, and it looks like we may have gotten in the 20-25 mil range. Today looks like it's going to be a muggy, humid one, and tomorrow looks the same before a front comes through sometime Sat. or Sun., although the forecasts for that front have been changing daily. We have noticed an increase in big spider activity over the last few days.

May 12: Saw the first cow beetle of the season. Beautiful bugs. Saw massive frog in the rain at night - had seen one a year ago but not clearly and wondered if it was a mammal due to the size. saw more clearly this time and it's a huge frog - not a toad. Guess they are the prized eating ones. neighbor says they make that single low croak - which actually sounds like it comes from a big fat frog.

May 14: saw golden colored snake curled up in swallow's nest - looked to be sleeping off a good meal. about 60cm long.

May 15: Might be wrong, but think we had first serious build up for the season of cumlionimbus out to sea today. No rain, but some good lightning out to sea at night. Very distant thunder.

May 20: Heavy intermittent rains over the last two weeks. Virtually no sunny day this month that I recall, though we've had a few days with occasional sun, including today. Yesterday we had continuous thunder all day with moderate rain in the morning and sprinkles after that, probably 10mm total at most. Point is, it's been very wet for weeks now. Temps: highs around 30 lows around 25 and that's to continue for the next week. Two serious mei yu storm bands crossing the island - will affect the west coast and central mountain range the most, but getting solid rain here and lots of thunder and lightning. Shaping up as one of the major mei yu events of the season.

May 25: Still in the meiyu season. The last couple of days have been fair in the morning with building clouds and rain by afternoon. Yesterday and today we've had an odd coastal formation of rain materialize out of nowhere in the afternoon. See http://formosahut.com/forum/index.php?id=701 for discussion.

May 29: mei yu might be finished. weather has moved into a very hot phase the last three days and no rain forecast. today is totally insuffrable and brings feelings of dread about the summer ahead. huge effort to get outside and do some work. put up shade cloth yesterday. Contrast to last year where most of the rain came in the back half - including 200 mm on this date. No sign of any typhoon activity whatsoever - not even a low pressure in the usual zone to the south east of us. very light southerly wind to dead calm.

May30: Mei yu does look to have moved onto the north of Taiwan and a sense that summer has begun. First hint of typhoon season with a low moving through mid ppe. (note: although mei yu did make reappearance with a further two significant fronts, rain pretty much dried up for us on se coast)

May31: Very isolated storm hit XC just after dark. Dropped 31mm here in about an hour. Drove into TD and it was much less past Dulan and then dry past Shan Yuan. No front in play so assume it was escaped bit of low pressure going thru ppe. Total Rainfall for May: 418.5 (ave 156)